Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Our previous forays into the August 29, 1865, edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer have focused on baseball, a major trial and crime.

We'll start this installment with the newspaper's reports of the comings and goings of steamships:

The North American1, from Liverpool on the 17th by the way of Londonderry on the 18th, passed Father Point2 yesterday morning. Her news is one day later than by the City of Washington. The North American is bound for Quebec.

The Hansa3, from Bremen and Southampton, also arrived at New York yesterday morning.

The steamer Propontis arrvied at Boston yesterday morning.

A telegram to Queenstown, dated August 17th, says that the Great Eastern arrived at Crookhaven on that morning. The previous report, by the Terrible, of the breaking of that cable on the 2d, and the subsequent attempts at grappling, are confirmed. The Great Eastern behaved in the most admirable manner, and will sail from Crookhaven to Sheerness. A fortnight had expired after the cable signals had ceased and before the Great Eastern had arrived. The public anxiety in England had greatly increased. The impression was very general that the Great Eastern must have met with an accident to her machinery, although some believed that she had gone on to Newfoundland.4

The Cholera. — The cholera continued its ravages at Ancona. Up to the 12th instant the number of deaths that occurred from it reached seven hundred and eighty-one.

The cholera had increased in intensity at Constantinople. The total number of deaths on the 12th reached three hundred and eighty-four. Business was generally suspended.

The Marseilles papers state that on the appearance of the of the cholera in Egypt the municipal authorities in Marseilles desired to place all ships entering that port from the Levant in quarantine. For that purpose they applied to the Board of Health in Paris for permission to do so, but their application was refused. They add that as yet the inhabitants of Marseilles have not suffered from cholera, although no quarantine has been enforced.

* * *

NEW YORK SOCIETIES IN THE CITY. — Last evening the Arion and Colonia German Singing Societies, about one hundred in number, from New York, arrived in this city. They are the guests of the Young Mænnerchor. In honor of their arrival, the latter society will give a grand pic-nic and summer night's festival today, which will be strictly private, and none but those invited will be allowed to join in the festivities. The guests will be conveyed in carriages to the pic-nic grounds, leaving Fourth and Vine streets at one o'clock P.M. They will pass down Fourth street to Walnut, out Walnut to Nineteenth, up Nineteenth to Green street, and thence to Fairmount Park. From Fairmount Park they will visit Girard College, and then continue on their way to where the festivities are to take place.

Footnotes1. A steamer named the North Americansank in January 1865 (eight months before this article), killing about 200 passengers, many of whom were "invalid soldiers." It's possible that, after the sinking, the former Union and USS Fort Jacksonwas refitted as the new North American that is mentioned in this August 1865 news item.
2. Father Point is the English name for Pointe-au-Père, Quebec.
3. This might be the Hansa that is mentioned in the Inquirer.

4. The SS Great Eastern (pictured at right) was a famous steamship in its time. According to Wikipedia: "She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refueling. Her length of 692 feet was only surpassed in 1899 by the 705-foot, 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, and her gross tonnage of 18,915 was only surpassed in 1901 by the 701-foot, 21,035-gross-ton RMS Celtic."

Per its name, it was intended for voyages to the Far East, but it only ever made trips across the Atlantic. And, in fact, its maiden voyage was marked by a fatal explosion. Later, it was converted to a cable-laying ship, and, even later, was used as a floating music hall. Here's a public domain image of the Great Eastern before its launch in 1858.

"Hi! Wow. This is kind of crazy. I got to your website while doing an internet search for Bessie Carrier Lester, whom I believe is the same person as Bessie N. Carrier (Lester being her married name). If it's the same person, she was born in 1895, went to Staunton High School, attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, married my husband's great uncle sometime after WW2, and passed away in 1962. With no children or (to my knowledge) any surviving siblings, she was the last living member of her family.

"Just last month, my family rediscovered some of the Carrier's silverware and family bibles in one of our basements, where they had sat forgotten for decades, and have been trying to learn as much as we can about the Staunton Carrier family, and Bessie Carrier in particular. I would love to be in touch with you about the papers you've found!"

Nina and I have already been in further touch about The Bessie Papers and I intend to get them into her family's hands. I will have further updates later.

Oldest food trademark still used in the United States: Anonymous writes: "I love this stuff. My mom would spread the deviled ham on some Ritz crackers as a snack back in the 80s, but I had no idea it was such an old product. So my kids tried it recently and they loved it. It was cool to share my story as a kid with them and about the deviled ham and how my mom would have these lil cans hidden and only pulled them out on special occasions. My kids love this stuff now."

[Note: I'm actually undecided about whether the above comment is spam. But I shared it anyway. Also, "Deviled Ham Spam" would be a great band name.]

More stuff from inside "A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband": Helen, who authors the Button and Snap blog, writes: "I was in the Girls Friendly Society in Los Angeles growing up. We always made and sold Queen's Cake as a fundraiser. Thanks for sharing the recipe — I'm looking forward to making it again. That's a pretty creepy slogan, but I'd never heard it before. Luckily, the motto in the U.S. is 'Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.'"

Monday, July 22, 2013

When Isadora Dukehart, a seventh-grader and avid reader in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, learned that the budget for her school district's library system was being slashed, she decided to do something about it.

The intrepid bibliophile launched a blog with the twin goals of raising money for the libraries and also garnering book donations from publishers.

And it worked.

More then 200 books have been donated by generous publishing houses, and she's received some monetary donations for the school district, too.

"My library is my place of refuge and solace. In a good book, I can visit faraway lands, worlds beyond this one, or go just down the street. And in these times of economic challenge, I think we need, more than ever, access to reading materials."

Sunday, July 21, 2013

This disturbing illustration of an anthropomorphic piece of food tumbling into an anthropomorphic blender is featured on the title page of the 1956 edition of "Mary Meade's Magic Recipes for the Electric Blender."

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About the Author

I'm Chris Otto, a Pennsylvania resident and journalist whose hobbies and interests include old books, ephemera, history, folklore, alpacas, photography and much more. Never stop reading, learning and asking questions! I consider this blog to be a spiritual descendant of Microsoft Encarta and a companion to Wikipedia. Every piece of paper tells a story.
Reach me at chrisottopa (at) gmail.com.

As (kind of) featured in The New York Times...

Papergreat was mentioned in Stephanie Clifford's August 7, 2011, article in The New York Times titled "Shopper Receipts Join Paperless Age." Find out why, years ago, I held onto a receipt for a hot dog!

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